ignorant of Gods will his vvill is sufficiently revealed in his vvord but we cannot discerne it to be his word till God by his spirit do inlighten our understanding And therefore St. Paul saith 1 Cor. 2. vve have received the spirit of God 1 Cor. 2.13 that we might know the things that are given us of God and presently after in the same Chapter but the natural man saith he perceives not the things of the spirit of God for they are foolishness unto him neither can he know them because they are spiritually discerned Now least we should imagine that because we are assured of the truth of Gods vvord onely by the testimony of Gods spirit that therefore till his spirit do work faith in our hearts the testimony of the Church and the hearing of the word is but vaâ—n and needless we are to understand that Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in the godly by these outward meanes For first the Testimony of the Church concerning the vvord invites us to come with the rest to hear it and while we are diligent and attentive in hearing it Gods spirit doth ordinarily beget faith in our hearts whereby we believe it and when faith hath once taken root in our hearts then we are so fully resolved of the truth of the Scriptures that all those arguments whereof before we made but light account are now like infallible demonstrations unto us For then we see plainly how necessary it was that God should reveal his vvill unto us and that if he have not revealed it in the Scripture he hath revealed it no where But that it is his will which he hath revealed in his vvord these Reasons will confirm us First In that the majesty of Gods spirit doth appear in every part of the Scripture wherein there is nothing that savours of humane wisdom but every thing therein is heavenly and divine for if we consider the matter thereof it far exceeds all humane invention For who could tell us of the Creation of the vvorld and the fall of Angels of the corruption of the whole nature of man through the transgression and disobedience of our first Parents of the redemption of the vvorld by the coming of the Messias of the rewards of the faithfull in the life to come and the punishment of sinners These things and many other which the Scripture reveals do so far go beyond the capacity of man that had not God revealed them in his word they could never have been known Secondly If we consider who penned the Scripture we shall find them for the most part to be simple men and therefore of themselves not capable of those heavenly mysteries which they have revealed in their vvritings Hos 11.1 Zach. 11.12.13 Psal 22.16.18 They were not learned and yet they foresaw things to come as if they were present and foretold many things which many hundred years after did come to passe They were not eloquent and yet more powerfull in moving the affections then Tullie Demosthenes and all the Rhetoricians in the vvorld besides They lived not together but in divers ages and several places and yet they agree so perfectly without the least contradiction as if they had had but one mind among them In a word Deut. 32.51 Jonah 1.3.6 Jonah 4.9 they were not as other men given over to sin but lived more uprightly then the most in their times and yet they have registred their own sins and infirmities to remain as it were upon the file unto all Posterities which had they been led by humane wisdom they would never have done All which shewes that howsoever the Scriptures were written here by men yet they were indicted by God in Heaven Thirdly If we consider the perfection of the Law which is called the Decalogue we shall see that none but God could be the Authour of it For there is not any good either outward or inward which we are bound to perform to God or man but it is there commanded nor any evil from which we are to abstain but it is there prohibited all which to be comprized in so few words farre exceeds the invention of men or Angels Mens Lawes howsoever they fill many large Volums yet they are still imperfect and daily want something to be added unto them which when they were made was not thought upon Sometimes again they must have something detracted that being thought convenient for the time when the Law was made which afterwards is found to be inconvenient in regard that mens conditions do so often change So that as it is in the fable when the Moon upon a time begged a new Coat of her mother her Mother replied that it was impossible to make her a Coat which would be fit for her by reason that her shape did so often alter as being now in the full now in the wane one while in one form and strait in another So it is impossible for men or Angels to make Lawes which without adding or detracting should serve for all persons and all ages because their manners and conditions do so often change But this Law which we find recorded in the Scripture is so absolute and perfect that it serves for all persons in all places and all ages and yet needes nothing to be added or detracted All other Lawes extend no further then to mens sayings or doings their words and their actions and take hold of them onely if they be not answerable to the Law but for the thoughts of mens hearts they do not inflict any penalty upon them but do leave them free The Civilians say Cogitationis paenam in foro nostro nemo luat let no man be punisht in our Court for a thought But this Law doth search into the secrets of the heart not only restraining our actual sins but our sinfull thoughts even our very first motions and inclinations to sin though we do not yield our consent thereunto to put the same in execution Rom. 7.7 St. Paul saith Rom. 7. that he had not known concupiscence to be a sinne if the Law had not said Thou shalt not covet For like as the Sunshine doth make us to see the least atomes or moaths which if it were not for the bright light of the Sunne we could not discerne So this bright light of the Law discovers the least and most secret sins which without this Law we could not have known All other Lawes because they cannot judge of the heart do require no more then outward obedience and judge well of him that lives according to the Law for his outward Carriage But this Law which as the Apostle saith Heb. 4. is a discerner of the thoughts and intents Heb. 4 1â— requires both outward and inward obedience and judgeth not him to be a good man who frames himself outwardly to the observing of the Law but not inwardly For as a man is not to be counted well and in good health though his hands and feete and
notice of the means or instrument whereby they are afflicted but look not up unto him that sent is as the dog flieth upon the stone that is thrown at him but mindeth not him that threw it but in every affliction we look up to God as the principall Agent Thus when Shimei reviled David 2 Sam. 16. telling him openly before all the people that he was a murderer and a wicked man and that he was an usurper of Sauls Kingdom and Davids Servants would have stain Shemei for railing on him David would not suffer them to do him any harm and he gives this reason Suffer him saith he to curse me for the Lord hath bidden him and so he looks not upon Shimei 2 Sam. 16. 11. but he hath an eye unto God as the Authour of this affliction Thus when the Devill had got a licence from God to afflict Job and the Sabeans on the one side took away his oxen as they were plowing and his asses as they were feeding in their places and the Calde ans on the other side took away his Camels and put his servants to the edge of the sword Job though he understood by his servants that it was done by them yet he passeth them by as being but the instruments and ascribes it to God as the principall Agent The Lord saith he hath given Job 1.21 and the Lord hath taken blessed be the name of the Lord. And thus when Joseph was afflicted by his brethren and sold into Egypt though he knew that this was done by them and that of an evill intent and meer malice towards him yet he looks not upon them but he looks upon God as the Author of his affliction Gen. 45.7.8 Gen. 50.20 The Lord saith he hath sent me hither for your preservation and the Lord hath disposed it unto good So that whensoever we are any way afflicted we are to passe by all second causes as being but the means and instruments which God useth to afflict us but we are especially to have an eye unto God as to the principall Agent and to remember that it is God that chastens us Vse 2 Secondly Seeing God is the Authour of all afflictions Therefore whensoever we are afflicted we are to humble our selves under the hand of God and to bear with patience whatsoever it shall please God to lay upon us For seeing God is the Authour of our afflictions who as Saint Paul saith 1 Cor. 10. is faithfull and will not suffer us to be tempted above our power but will give an issue with the temptation that we may be able to bear it and seeing that if we indure chastening as the Apostle here telleth us in the next verse God offers himselfe unto us as unto Sons Heb. 12.7 he offers himself as a father unto us therefore we are patiently to under go all afflictions that he shall lay upon us Diogenes the Philosopher being visited with sicknesse and being impatient by reason of his pain his friend to comfort him willed him to be of good chear and to bear it with patience because God was the Authour of his sicknesse Oh saith the Philosopher but this is that which grieves me the more this is that which maketh me the more impatient seeing that my sicknesse is sent of God But it is not so with the children of God they are always the more patient when they are afflicted and do bear the same without murmuring and repining because God is the Authour of their afflication So when old Eli 1 Sam. 3. understood by Samuel what God had threatned even to root out his house for ever he submitted himself unto Gods will It is faith he the Lord 1 Sam. 3.18 Psal 39.9 let him do what seemeth him good The like did David Psal 39. when the hand of the Lord was so heavy upon him that it even consumed him yet he bare it patiently I became faith he dumb and opened not my mouth for it was thy doing When Jobs wife would have had him to blaspheme and to curse God in the extreamity of his pain Job 2.10 Thou speakest saith Job like a foolish woman shall we receive good at the hand of God and shall we not receive evill as thinking it unreasonable that we should be content to receive the one and not the other If our earthly parents do chasten and correct us we will endure it with patience and should we not endure the chastisement and correction of our heavenly Father We have had saith the Apostle here in the 9th verse the fathers of our bodies which have corrected us and we have given them reverence and should we not faith he much rather be in subjection to the Father of spirits We will suffer the Physician in the time of our sicknesse because he hath seen our water or felt our pulse to let us bloud we will suffer him to prescribe us a lesse diet and to take away from us the use of some meats wherein in our health we were much delighted and we will patiently endure the want thereof and not murmure against him And should we not yield as much unto God as we do to the Physician yet if God take away from us any of those things wherein we were wont to take comfort and delight if he afflict us with the losse of our goods with the losse of our health or with the losse of our friends we presently fall into great impatiencie as if so be God dealt too hardly with us But doth not God know what is best for us if he afflict thee with the losse of thy goods he fore-saw it may be they would have done thee harm and that thou would'st have set thy heart upon them Nisi perdidisses tu illa te fortè perdidissent faith Seneca If God had not withdrawn thy riches from thee it may be thy riches would have withdrawn thee from God If God take away thy health and afflict thee with sicknes it may be it is to cure thee of a more dangerous disease as foreseeing that otherwise if thou hadst had thy health thou wouldest have taken a greater surfet of the pleasures of this life If God do afflict thee with any kind of disgrace by suffering thee to be wronged in thy good name and credit it may be he doth it to teach thee humility as fore-seeing that otherwise thou wouldest have waxed proud and vain-glorious For vicâ—sin the mind saith Plato are as diseases in the body and chastilements as medicines and surely God is the Physician that knows best how to apply them And therefore whensoever we are any way afflicted we are to possesse our soules with patience because it is God that chastens Lastly Seeing it is God that chastens this may therefore teach us in all our afflictions to seek vnto God for help deliverance Vse 3 that he that wounded us may cure recover us the same hand that cast us down may raise us up again I saith
foam and disgorge their malice against them that offend them Therefore it is said of the wicked Rom. 3. Destruction and misery are in their wayes Ro. 3.16.17 and the way of peace they have not known not known the way of peace either actively or passively either to make peace among those that are at variance or to imbrace and entertain peace when it is offered them by others Gal. 5.22 Gal. 5.20 And therefore the Apostle Gal. 5. names love and peace and long-suffering among the fruits of the spirit and hatred variance and emulation among the Works of the flesh to shew that as the godly who are renewed by the spirit live in unity and peace so the wicked on the contrary are prone by nature to dissention and variance They are easily drawn upon any light occasion to fall out with their neighbours and not easily pacified but hard to be reconciled where they have taken offence Nay they are so far from either making or taking peace that they delight to sow discord and dissention among others like the Scribes and the Pharisees who to make variance between Christ and his Disciples sometimes accused the disciples to Christ Marke 7.5 Mark 2.6 why eat thy disciples with unwashen hands sometimes Christ to his disciples why eats your Master with Publicans anà sinners and all to breed dissention and variance between them But the godly on the contrary who are called by our Saviour The Sons of peace they are peace-makers Luke 10.16 labouring to unite and reconcile those whom they see at variance So we read of Monistia Saint Austins Mother that when she heard there was variance between any of her neighbours she would first go to one of them and relate unto her some good of the other and having brought her to acknowledge it to be true and wonne her to a better liking of her then she would go to the other and tell her that she had heard there was some discontent between her and such a neighbour but hoped it was not true because she had lately been in her company and heard her speak very well of her and so by relating some good between them she would breed a better liking of one to the other Thus the godly seek to reconcile those whom they see at odds Nay if there happens any breach between themselves and others they will seek to be reconciled though it be to their own disadvantage So did Abraham Gen. 13.8.9 Gen. 13. who when there fell a strife between his servants Lots he came unto Lot Let saith he there be no strife I pray thee between thee and me neither between my heard-men and thine for we are brethren Is not the whole land before thee if thou wilt take the left hand I will go to the right or if thou wilt go to the right hand I will take the left Where you see how desirous he was of peace Though Abraham were a better man then Lot yet he stood not upon that he stayed not till Lot would come unto him but he went unto Lot and was the first that sought reconcilement and rather then he would not have reconcilement between them he offers him his choise of the whole land and so was content to purchase peace though it were to his own losse and hinderance For the godly who are the children of God do imitate God Heb. 13.6 who is called in the Scripture the God of peace and therefore they are peace-makers both seeking to unite and reconcile others that are at dissention and desiring if it were possible and as much as lieth in them to have peace with all men whereas for the wicked because they do not delight in peace it is far from them and have not either any peace with God nor peace with the creatures nor peace with men Lastly As they have no peace abroad so none at home as they have no peace with others so none with themselves They carry within them a guilty conscience which doth accuse and condemn them and will not suffer them to be at peace Their conscience indeed doth not always trouble them but then when it doth not their case is more desperate For like as it is in the sicknesse of the body vvhen the pulse doth not beat the body is in a more dangerous estate so it is likevvise in the sicknesse of the soul When the conscience doth not beat and check them for sin their case is more dangerous because it is a signe that their conscience is seared as Saint Paul speaketh with a hot-iron 1 Tim. 4.2 and that their custom of sinning doth take avvay from them the sense of sin and makes them past feeling But when sicknesse or any other crosse or affliction is laid upon them whereby the conscience is wakened again then it begins to torment them afresh and will so terrifie and affright them with the sight of their sins that they shall finde no rest Though the wicked had all the wealth in the world and wanted nothing that their hearts could desire for their outward estate yet as long as their sins are a wound to their souls and a torment to their conscience they can never have any peace in themselves For this peace is only wrought by faith in Christ whereby a man believes that Christ hath made a full satisfaction to God for all his sins and therefore that they shall not be laid to his charge which faith because the wicked have not nor ever can have while they continue in their sins they cannot have this peace and wanting this peace they want the greatest blessing that is For he that hath this peace though he have nothing besides yet he wants not any thing and he that wants this peace though he have every thing else yet indeed he hath nothing This peace is a continuall feast to the godly it makes them to fare as it is said of the rich man in the Gospel every day deliciously And this peace is the fruit of our peace with God which Christ the Prince of peace bath purchased for us and bequeathed unto us and therefore calls it his peace John 15. Peace leave I with you John 14. ◠my Peace give I unto you not as the World gives give I unto you For all the principalities and powers in the World are not able to give us one jot of this Peace The peace which the World gives is false and uncertaine and doth oftten deceive us but this is a true and certaine peace which never fails us the peace which the world gives is onely outward and onely affords us externall content but this peace extends to the quieting of the conscience the peace which the world gives is only transitory as the world is but this is as permanent as the giver of it for this is one of the chief of his gifts whose gifts you know are without repentance And therefore he gives it onely to the godly and
he shews by the Author thereof two waies First Negatively that the Scriptures are not of mans invention For the prophecy saith he came not in old time by the will of man Secondly Affirmatively that the Holy Ghost was the Authour of them But holy men of God saith he spake as they were moved by the Holy Ghost But some man may say Indeed the Apostle saith thus but how doth he prove it He saith as St. Paul doth that the Scriptures are inspired of God 2 Tim. 3.16 but how doth he prove it When Aristotle that great profound Philosopher saw the books of Moses and read what he wrote about the Creation of the world he misliked his Books because he proved not that which he wrote Hic omnia dicit nihil probat This man saith he saith every thing but he proyes nothing But we are to remember that though we may doubt of that which men say because all men are lyars as the Scripture saith and so need proofs to consume their sayings yet the Scripture being the Word of God is of it self sufficient to credit and need not any proof for the confirmation of it The Jewes have a saying that the Law doth not need any fortification in regard that God was the Authour of it and so God being the Authour of the whole Scripture it needs no fortification or proof to strengthen it but whatsoever we find written therein we need make no question of the truth thereof but are bound to believe it True may some say if we were assured that the Scriptures are the Word of God that God not man was the Author of them then we need make no question of the truth of those things which we find therein But how shall we know them to be Gods word and that no other was the Authour of them Which because it is the summe of that which the Apostle delivers in these words I purpose briefly to handle this question How a man may know and be fully assured that the Scriptures must needs be the word of God Concerning which question there is a great controversie between us and the Church of Rome They say that the onely Testimony of the Church is sufficient to perswade us that the Scripture is the Word of God and that if it were not for the Testimony of the Church we could not give any credit to it We say that the Scripture is known to be Gods Word by the inward Testimony of Gods Spirit and that without this Testimony to perswade us hereunto the testimony of the Church and of all other whatsoever is insufficient Titubabit sides nostra si Scripturae vacillet autoritas August de Doct. Christ lib. 1. cap. 37. Our faith will stagger saith St. Augustine if the authority of the Scripture stand not firme But how can the authority of the Scripture stand firme if it be built onely upon so weak a foundation as the testimony of man For the Church is subject to errour both in doctrine and manners and therefore this testimony may deceive us But we require an infallible proof for the certainty of the Scriptures They say that the Testimony of the Church is infallible and when we wil have them to prove it they prove it thus because it is the pillar and ground of truth 1 Tim. 3.15 as the Scripture tells us Thus if a man doubt of the authority of the Scripture to prove it they send him to the testimony of the Church and while he doubts of the truth of the testimony of the Church to prove it they send him back again to the Scripture But if the Church be sufficient to perswade a man that the Scriptures are the word of God how comes it to passe that Turks Insidels who have often heard this testimony of the Church are not yet perswaded of the truth of the Scriptures How many thousands of Jewes are now living in Italie and many of them in Rome who deny the Gospel and are not yet perswaded that Christ is come If the onely Testimony of the Church be sufficient why make they not proof thereof upon them that the World may see the virtue and efficacy of it But we know experience tells them daily to their faces that they cannot do it and if you ask them the reason they can give none but this because of the blindness and unbelief of the Jewes why therefore say we that that which is able to assure a man that the Scripture is Gods word must be able to illuminate his understanding and to give him faith that he may believe it but this is onely the work of Gods spirit There is nothing more ordinary among the Prophets then when they delivered Gods vvord to the People to tell the People that it was Gods vvord which they delivered Heare the word of the Lord saith Esay 1.10 The word of the Lord came unto me saith Jeremie 1.4 and thus every one of the Prophets from the first to the last do testifie that they delivered the vvord of God Esay 53.1 But who hath believed our report saith Esay so that where there was one that believed it there were many that did not and therefore if neither the vvord it self nor the testimony of the Prophets concerning the vvord could perswade them that it was the vvord of God much lesse is the testimony of the Church sufficient when St. Paul preached at Phylippi Acts 16. there were many that heard him but it is said there of Liddia onely that God opened her heart so that she attended unto that which he spake Acts 16.14 now if she could not so much as attend unto those things which St. Paul delivered unlesse that God had first opened her heart much lesse could she have believed that that which he spake was the vvord of God but by the inward operation of Gods spirit The Word is sometimes called a light because it is lightsome in it self as the Sunne but as the Sunne though it be never so lightsome yet it cannot be discerned by those that are blind So the Word though in it self it be never so glorious yet it is not apparent to us till our hearts be opened The Word is sometime compared to seed because it is fruitfull like the seed that is sowen but as the seed which is sowen cannot bring forth increase but by the influence and virtue which it receiveth from Heaven no more is the word fruitfull and effectual in us till God by his spirit give a blessing unto it The word is not unlike the poole in Jerusalem whereof there is mention John 5. The poole though it cured all outward Diseases yet it had not this virtue but then onely when the Angell did stir the waters the word though it be the means to cure our inward infirmities yet it cannot do it but onely by the motion of Gods spirit Now the first Disease which is to be cured is out spiritual blindnss whereby we are
therfore our Saviour excused his Disciples for not fasting by an argument drawn from the time Can the children of the Bride-chamber fast while the Bridegroom is with them Mat. 9.15 as long as they have the Bridegroom with them they cannot fast Giving of almes is another duty which is much commended in the Scripture unto us yet giving of almes hath a limitation of persons for all are not injoyn'd to give almes but onely such as are of ability and they that are of ability are not injoyned to give almes unto all but onely to such as are in want and necessity but as every one is injoyn'd to pray so to pray for all men I exhort saith the Apostle 1 Tim. 2.1 that supplications prayers intercessions and giving of thanks be made for all men So that if we put all these together That every one is injoyn'd to pray to pray for all persons to pray at all times to pray in all places and to pray with all manner of supplications and prayers This must needs be a very necessary duty because it is so generally and absolutely injoyn'd us And indeed there is great reason why prayer should have no limitation because every man may easily performe the same If God had commanded us to offer goats and bullocks unto him the poore and the needy might have excused themselves for want of ubility if God had commanded us to go a pilgrimage into faâ—re Countries and there do him service the blinde and the lame might have excused themselves by reason of their impotencie But no man can pretend any just excuse why he should not pray because every man may easily performe this duty And thus much briefly for the necessity of prayer The Object of prayer Object of prayer ye see is God Every one that is godly shall pray unto thee He doth not say shall pray to Saints or Angels or the Virgine but unto thee For this is the Title which David gives unto God That he is the hearer of prayer Psal 65.25 O thou that hearest prayer unto thee shall all flesh come For prayer is a part of Gods service and worship and so to be given to no other but God Therefore God commands us to pray unto him Call upon me faith God in the fifty Psalm Christ teacheth us to pray unto God Our Father which art in heaven c. The Spirit teacheth us to pray unto God For God saith the Apostle Gal. 4.6 hath sent forth the Spirit of his Son into our hearts crying Abba Father So that if we would be instructed to whom we must pray can we have better instructers then these the Father the Sonne and the Holy Ghest who teach us to pray unto God onely Therefore if we search all over the Scripture from the beginning of Genesis to the end of the Revelation among all the prayers which are registred therein among all the Psalmes one hundred and fifty whereof two parts at the least are prayers yet we finde not one prayer among them all which was ever made to Cherubin or Seraphim to Raphael Gabriel or any of the Angebs to Abraham or Isaac or any of the Patriarchs to Moses or Samuel or any of the Prophets to Peter or Paul or any of the Apostles to the blessed Virgine or any of the Saints but onely to God Thus if we would have presidents of prayer can we have better presidents then these which the Scripture records and which have been made by the faithfull in all Ages And the reason is plain because they had no warrant out of Gods word to pray to any other but God and they knew besides that God and no other hears our prayers and sees our wants Indeed the Papists who pray to Saints and Angels hold that they cannot but see our wants and hear our prayers For How say they should not they see all things who sea the face of him that seeth all things as if by seeing God they must see all things that God sees which if it were true their knowledg ye know must needs be infinite as God is And besides this is plainly confuted by Christ for Christ who tells us Math. 18. Mat. 18.10 Mar. 13.32 That the Angells do alwayes behold the face of his Father in Heaven He likewise tells us Marke 13. That the Angells are ignorant of the day of Judgement And for the Saints departed the Scripture tells us That they know no more what is done upon the earth and have no understanding of the affaires of the living So Solomon tells us Eccles 9. That the dead know not any thing neither have they any more a portion for ever Eceles 9.6 in any thing that is done under the Sunne If any of the dead should have any knowledge of the state of the living then questionlesse Princes of the state of their Subjects and Fathers of their children But that Princes after they are departed have not any knowledge of their Subjects we see by Josias where God gratiously promises to take him away 2 King 22.20 that he might not see the evill which he would bring upon the Jewes And that Fathers have no knowledge after their departure of the state of their children Job plainly tells us in his 14. Chapter the 20. verse speaking of a Father that is dead and leaves children behind him His Sonnes saith he come to honour and he knows it not and they are brought low and he perceives it not Nay Abraham the Father of the faithfull to whom God promised that he would multiply his seed as the Starres of Heaven yet he had no knowledge after his departure what became of them And therefore the Israelites Esay 63.16 ver acknowledge that Abraham and Jacob that were dead had no knowledge of their miseries Doubtlesse say they thou art our Father though Abraham be ignorant of us and Jacob know us not yet thou O Lord art our Father and Redeemer thy name is for ever Si tanti Patriarche c. If saith St. Augustine so great Patriarchs were ignorant what became of the people that came from their loines How shall the dead have ought to do in the knowledge or aide of the affaires and actions of their dearest survivers But suppose they did know our affaires and actions yet our hearts they cannot know for this is proper to God onely who is the searcher of the heart Now our hearts ye know are the seate of our prayers the lips do but vent them to the eares of men And therefore Solomon in the 1 of the Kings the 8. Chapter useth this as an argument why we are to pray to no other but God because God and no other can hear our prayers because he onely knows our hearts Hear thou saith he 1 King 8.39 in Heaven thy dwelling place and do and give to every man according to his wayes whose heart thou knowest for thou even thou onely knowest the hearts of all the children of men So that he
And therefore to conclude with the words of the Apostle Behold now is the accepted time now is the day of Salvation And therefore if thou wilt come unto him in the time accepted deferre not the time but come unto him while salvation is offered The time that is past is altogether irrevocable the time that is to come is altogether uncertaine onely the time present is the time accepted and therefore come now while he may be found FINIS The Fourteenth SERMON ACTS 7.59.60 And they stoned Steven calling upon God and saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit And he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge Division TO passe over the Coherence of these words with the former we may observe in them these two things The great impiety of the Jewes in martyring Steven and Stevens great piety in his martyrdom Their impiety is set down briefly in the first words wherein is mentioned both the person that was martyr'd and that was Steven the kind of his martyrdom and that was stoning and by whom he was thus martyr'd namely by the Jewes They stoned Steven Stevens great piety in his martyrdom is set down more largely in the words following and herein is declared both his faith towards God and his charity towards men both which he shews by a double prayer which he makes first for himself He called upon God saying Lord Jesus receive my spirit then for his persecutors he kneeled down and cryed with a loud voice Lord lay not this sinne to their charge First then concerning the impiety of the Jewes the person that was martyred here was Steven who according to his name which in the Greek doth signifie a Crown was the first who after the Ascention of Christ 3. Sorts of Martyrs was crowned with martyrdom Now there are Martyrs of three sorts First Such as are Martyrs voluntate sed non opere in will and desire but not in act So Eusebius vvrites of Origen that while he vvas young he had such a desire to be a Martyr that his Mother was faine to hide all his apparel that she might keep him at home because otherwise he vvould have gone to his Father who vvas then in prison to have suffered martyrdom vvith him And so he was a Martyr in vvill and affection And it is very memorable vvhich Sotrates Theodoret and likevvise Sozomen in their Ecclesiastical Histories do report of a woman vvho so affected martyrdom that vvhen she understood that Valens the Emperour had sent Modestus the Governour of Edessa with a band of souldiers to kill all the Christians that were assembled there at St. Thomas Church she ran thither in all hast with a child of hers Modestus observing how fast she ran caused her to be called and asked her whether she was running She answered to the Church vvhere the Christians were assembled Why do you not know saith Modestus that the Emperour hath sent me thither to put them all to death I know it well saith the woman and therefore I make the more hast thither that I may dye with them But why saith he do you carry your child with you That he saith she may likewise be crowned vvith Martyrdom This answer of hers so moved Modestus that he returned back and diswaded the Emperour from the execution of it And these vvere Martyrs in vvill and affection but not in act Secondly There are others that are Martyres opere sed non voluntate Martyrs in act but not in vvill and affection Such were those innocent babes of Bethlehem that Herod slew vvhom St Augustine calls Primitias Martyrum the first fruits of Martyrs for these dyed for Christ that vvas to dye for them and vvere Witnesses unto him speaking vvith their bloud as Chrysostom saith that could not speak vvith their tongue and confessing and shewing forth his praise not in speaking but in dying And such a Martyr vvas that babe vvhereof we read in the book of Martyrs vvhich sprang out of his Mothers Wombe while she was burning at the stake and vvas by the Papists cast againe into the fire as thy brood of Heriticks A more horrible and impious act in them then it had been being committed by any other in regard of their doctrine because they hold it as an Article of their Faith that all Children are damned that dye without Baptisme and yet they vvilfully burned this innocent before he vvas Baptized and so as they thought did not onely cast his Body into the fire but his Soule into Hell though indeede this blessed Babe did not want Baptisme but vvas Baptized vvith the Holy Ghost and vvith fire and vvas no sooner borne but died a Martyr Martyr opere non voluntate a Martyr in act though not in vvill and desire Thirdly There are others that are Martyres voluntate et opere Martyrs both in Will and Act and such a Martyr vvas Steven vvho both in Will and Act did suffer Martyrdom Now because as St. Austin saith out of Cyprian Non paena sed causa facit Martyrem it is not the punishment vvhich a man doth suffer but the cause for vvhich he suffers that makes him a Martyr Let us see for what it vvas that Steven vvas here Martyred And this vvas as vve see verse 52. for the Testimony of Christ Which of the Prophets saith he have not your Fathers persecuted And they have slaine them which shewed before of the coming of the just One of whom you have been now the betrayers and murtherers He knevv that they hated Christ to the death and had therefore Crucified him He knevv that they had imprisoned his Disciples and strictly charged them to Preach no more in his Name He knevv that for Preaching in his Name he himself vvas here brought before the Councell and had false Witnesses suborned against him and so could not but knovv that his bearing vvitnesse to Christ must needs endanger him and yet vvith great boldnesse he bear vvitnesse to Christ and for this it vvas that he suffered Martyrdom Here then in Steven we may observe a difference betvven true and false Martyrs True Martyrs suffer in a good cause for the testimony of Christ and the defence of the truth but false Martyrs suffer in a bad cause for the defence of their errors Epipha contra Har. lib. 3. to 2. Har. 80. So Epiphanius writes of a sect called Martyriani vvho count themselves Martyrs though they suffred indeed for their vvorshiping of Idols So many have been registred for Martyrs and canonized for Saints in the Church of Rome that have suffered as Traitors and died for Treason But true Martyrs do suffer in a just cause and such onely can have comfort in their sufferings Mat. 10.39 He saith our Saviour that loseth his life for my sake shall finde it it is not enough to lose it unlesse it be lost for Christs sake otherwise there is no promise made of finding it Mat. 5.10 Blessed are